ScarlettLouise
by Sophie Temrer Rimmer-Artley
Summary: AU Oneshot. Rimmer's childhood was not what it seemed...


**AN: This story was inspired by 'Nothing But Air', so read it when you have time! Rimmer's childhood is a mine of inspiration, so I felt I had to delve into it. AU because they are on Red Dwarf with Rimmer as a hard light hologram. Enjoy!**

Lister tiptoed into the sleeping quarters, looking around warily.

"Rimmer?" he called out. No reply came. Lister grinned in triumph. Now he could find his guitar strings. Where would the smeghead have hidden them? Lister crept over to Rimmer's chest of drawers and opened the top one, peeping in. Right there, taunting him, was a photo album. Lister's curiosity got the better of him and he pulled it out and flipped it open. The first photo was one of two toddlers sitting side-by-side in a garden. The boy was brown-haired, and the girl's hair was a vibrant ginger and sat in ringlets just above her shoulders. The caption beneath it read: _Me and Scarlett-Louise aged two and a half._

"Scarlett-Louise?" Lister wondered aloud. "Who the smeg is Scarlett-Louise?" He turned the page to reveal another photo of the boy, who he assumed must be Rimmer, grinning at the camera to show the gap in his smile, with the caption: _I lose my first tooth_. The opposite page held a photograph of the girl Scarlett-Louise doing the same thing, and was captioned:_ Scarlett-Louise loses her first tooth_. The next picture was one of the two children dressed up, with Rimmer in what looked like a farmer's outfit, and Scarlett-Louise in a white dress trimmed with tinsel. Lister knew what this was, but read the caption anyway: _Year Two Nativity Play, Scarlett-Louise as angel, me as shepherd_.

Over and over again Lister found photos of the two children together; on their first day at secondary school, on holidays, in school productions. The final photograph was of the two aged sixteen. _Our last day of compulsory education _read the caption. The pair were smiling blissfully with yearbooks tucked under their arms. There was something different about them though. They looked happier, Lister thought, much happier.

"Lister, what the hell are you doing with my photo album!" came a sudden yell from Rimmer as the album was snatched from Lister's hands.

"I'm sorry man, I was only looking for my guitar strings, but that distracted me." Lister said hurriedly, cringing away from Rimmer's angry face.

"Never, never look at any of my things again without my permission!" Rimmer reprimanded Lister, waving a finger in Lister's face before turning to leave, the photo album clasped protectively to his chest.

"Who's Scarlett-Louise?" Lister called. Rimmer froze in the doorway and slowly turned back to face Lister.

"What?"

"I said, who's Scarlett-Louise? You seem to have a lot of photos of her."

Rimmer sighed, moving back over to Lister and perching on the bunk beside him.

"I suppose I should have known you'd find these sooner or later." Rimmer said. "Scarlett-Louise Rimmer was my twin sister."

"You never told me you had a twin sister!" Lister exclaimed.

"That's because she died when we were both seventeen."

"Oh hey, sorry man." Lister said sympathetically. "Forget I even asked."

"No no, I might as well tell you." Rimmer insisted. "I was the older twin by a few minutes, so I always felt protective of her. We were inseparable, we had that close bond that twins often have. I swear we really could read each other's minds sometimes. She had the most beautiful singing voice, it was just mesmerising. Mother wanted Scarlett-Louise to pursue singing as a career, but she was almost like one of the boys, and she wanted to join the Space Corps like the rest of us. The two of us used to build space ships out of old boxes and things and pretend we were flying out on dangerous missions battling aliens." Rimmer paused in his story. "We didn't have it easy though. Do you remember what I told you about my father a few years ago?"

Lister nodded. "Yeah, he used to stretch you and starve you."

"Well, Mother drew the line at Scarlett-Lou being put on the rack, but she had to answer astronavigation questions for meals like the rest of us, her being so intent on joining the Space Corps. Unfortunately, when it came to exams and memorising facts, she was about as dreadful as I am." Rimmer said grimly.

"No way!" Lister gasped. "No offence Rimmer, but your dad was a psychopath!"

"None taken Listy. Anyway, all that smeg I told you about divorcing my parents was a lie. What Scarlett-Lou and I did when we were both sixteen was move to a nearby care home. There we were fed properly, looked after, and finally free from our parents."

"So that's why you look different in the last photo."

Rimmer nodded. "A few weeks after that photo was taken, and a day after our seventeenth birthday, we were on a train heading for Space Corps Summer Camp, and we were so excited we could barely sit still. About an hour into the journey, a voice over the loudspeaker told everyone to return to their seats. I was already sat down reading, but Scarlett-Louise had gone to buy a drink, so I got up and went to find her. There was a sudden jolt, and I went flying headlong into the door to the next carriage. I could tell I was hurt, but I kept moving. All around me were people screaming, but I could only think of Scarlett-Lou. I spotted her lying on the floor in the aisle, and I could see that she was unconscious. The train jolted again before finally coming to a stop. After what seemed like hours two paramedics found us and we were taken to hospital in the same ambulance. I held her hand all the way there, and when we reached the hospital I refused to leave her, even though the doctors wanted to check me over too. So I went with her, and the doctor hooked her up to a life support machine and told me that the extended period of unconsciousness had brought on a coma. I was shocked, and had to be dragged out kicking and screaming so they could check on me. See that scar?" Rimmer asked, pointing to the jagged line on his chin and neck. Lister nodded. "That happened when I hit my head on the carriage door. They stitched me up and finally let me go back to Scarlett-Louise. She looked so pale and fragile, I was almost afraid to touch her, but in the end I got up the courage to take her hand again. After what must have been at least an hour, the doctor came back, and told me that Scarlett-Lou only had a 10% chance of pulling through, and even if she did her brain would be permanently damaged and would need round-the-clock care. I knew what he was going to ask. He was going to ask my permission to turn off her life support machine. I took a long time thinking about it, and eventually I just knew in my heart that Scarlett-Lou wouldn't want to live like that. So later that evening, they let me hold my twin sister in my arms as she died."

Rimmer's eyes were welling up with tears, and Lister put a comforting arm around the hard light hologram and handed him a tissue.

"Let it out, man, let it out." Lister murmured as sobs began to wrench through Rimmer's entire body. The two of them sat there for a long time, until Rimmer finally stopped crying and straightened up, blowing his nose.

"If you think that was bad, you should have seen me at her funeral." Rimmer said with a watery smile. "I practically drowned myself."

Lister laughed softly. "I can imagine."

"My salute..." Rimmer began.

"What about it?" Lister asked.

"It was hers. She invented it. I promised myself I'd carry it on in her memory..." Rimmer said quietly.

"Smeg, I had no idea." Lister said ashamedly. "I'd never have taken the mickey if I'd have known –"

"It's not your fault, you weren't to know." Rimmer said. "Maybe I should have told you about her before, then we could have avoided this."

"Doesn't matter, man." Lister insisted. "I'm gonna hit the hay." Lister got up and clambered into his own bunk. "Night Rimmer."

"Goodnight Listy." Rimmer said, tucking the photo album back in the drawer and settling into his bunk to get some sleep. "Lights."

* * *

"Arnie... Arnieeee..."

Rimmer followed the voice until he reached the observation dome. Standing before him was a perfect incarnation of what he'd always imagined Scarlett-Louise would look like if she were still alive now.

"Scarlett-Lou?"

"Of course."

"Is this a dream?" Rimmer asked her.

"Ah-ah-ah, that would be telling." she said. "Don't I get a hug from my favourite brother then?" she giggled, and the siblings embraced tightly.

"It's good to see you. You look wonderful." Rimmer told her.

"So do you. I've been watching over you all these years. Your guardian angel." she said with a sad little smile.

"I bet your singing voice puts some of the best angels to shame."

She laughed softly. "You made it. Our dream of becoming part of the Space Corps. You made it happen."

"But I was Second Technician! That's hardly the sort of achievement that calls for a fanfare and a tickertape parade." Rimmer pointed out.

"It doesn't matter. What's important is that you made out childhood fantasy a reality and I'm so proud of you. I just wish I could have been there to share it with you."

Rimmer felt a tear slide down his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"There's no need to apologise, Arnie. You knew I would have hated life with constant attention from a carer. It's better that I was never forced to know life like that. You're the only person I would have wanted to make that decision for me. I could feel you there, you know. Every time you took my hand, I felt it, and desperately wanted to squeeze your hand so you knew I was still there. Right at the end I could feel you holding me. So thank you. Thank you for everything you did, on that day and every other day of our childhood."

The brother and sister hugged again, both in tears now.

"I miss you Scarlett-Lou." Rimmer whispered.

"I miss you too Arnie. But I'm always going to be up there looking out for you. It's the least I can do to repay you for what you did for me." She took a step back as if to leave.

"Scarlett-Louise, wait! Before you go... will you sing for me one last time? It's been forever since I heard you sing."

Scarlett-Louise considered this, then took a deep breath.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves among the fields of barley, you can tell the sun in his jealous sky when we walked in fields of gold..."

As she sang, Scarlett-Louise's form faded until she finally disappeared altogether. A sweet breeze blew around the observation deck, and the wind seemed to whisper "Bye Arnie.".

"Goodbye Scarlett-Lou." Rimmer whispered back.

The next morning, Rimmer awoke to find himself curled up on the cold hard floor of the observation dome...

**God, I really hope this is good, because when someone writes a story like this, it's either amazing or crappy, and I just hope I fall into the 'amazing' category! Scarlett-Louise is a character that belongs to me, but the name is borrowed from the daughter of my hairdresser, and she isn't ginger, but I think her name is beautiful, and I hope you agree! Review please!**

**P.S. I know I was supposed to be on hiatus, but the plot bunnies just wouldn't leave me alone, so from now onwards I am on hiatus until 20****th**** June, not the 23****rd**** as originally planned. See you then everyone!**


End file.
